sence of communication between guard | tors and the great body of civil engineers. and driver; deficient brake power; and The conclusion of the whole matter is this, negligence of servants, owing to excessive that the vast majority of railway acciwork, insufficient pay, and inadequate num-dents are preventable; and that they are bers. There is nothing new in all this; it not prevented is owing to mismanage has been said over and over again. But ment-that is, to parsimony, and to the it is something to get a conspectus of the starving system adopted by the Compawhole case. It is something to argue it, nies. Confront this fact with the other not upon single casualties, but upon full fact that the working expenses of railways returns spread over a series of years, and have been diminished, are annually diminembracing the whole railway system of ishing, and that it is the avowed policy of the United Kingdom. And it is something all directors to diminish them still more. to have all these facts produced in an au- And now, pondering over these two great thoritative shape, and to have the usual facts, let us enjoy our railway trips this arguments expressed, not in mere news- autumn with such appetite and confidence paper articles, but by government inspec- as we may. For I can only think of thee; And wholly blest with thee alone. Afar from thee! the words of praise My listless ear unheeded greet; What sweetness seemed in better days, Without thee seems no longer sweet. The dearest joy fame can bestow Is in thy moistened eye to see, And in thy cheeks' unusual glow, Thou deem'st me not unworthy thee. Afar from thee! the night is come, But slumbers from my pillow flee; Oh! who can rest so far from home? And my heart's home is, love, with thee. I kneel me down in silent prayer, And then I know that thou art nigh; For God, who seest every where, Bends on us both his watchful eye. Together in his loved embrace, No distance can our hearts divide: Forgotten quite the mediate space, I kneel thy kneeling form beside. My tranquil frame then sinks to sleep, But soars the spirit far and free; Oh! welcome be night's slumbers deep, For then, sweet love, I am with thee. WE TWO. BY CLARENCE BUTLER. WE own no houses, no lots, no lands, And yet we live in a grander state, No bank-books show our balance to draw, Yet we carry a safe-key that unlocks More treasure than Croesus ever saw. We wear no velvet nor satin fine, We dress in a very homely way, But ah! what luminous lusters shine About Sunbeam's gowns and my hodden gray! When we walk together (we do not ride, We are far too poor) it is very rare We are bowed unto from the other side Of the street-but for this we do not care; We are not lonely, we pass along, Sunbeam and I, and you can not see, We can, what tall and beautiful throngs Of angels we have for company. No harp, no dulcimer, no guitar, Breaks into music at Sunbeam's touch, But do not think that our evenings are Without their music; there is none such In the concert halls, where the palpitant air In musical billows floats and swims; Our lives are as psalms, and our foreheads wear A calm, like the peal of beautiful hymns. When cloudy weather obscures our skies, And some days darken with drops of rain, Sunbeam and I, and never grow old. Never grow old, but we live in peace, And the days pass on with their thoughtful tread, Sunbeam's hair will be streaked with gray, With nothing to hurt us or upbraid, FERNS. In the cool and quiet nooks, With the branches overhead, Choose we there our mossy bed. On tall cliffs that woo the breeze, Where no human footstep presses, And no eye our beauty sees, There we wave our maiden tresses. In the mouths of mountain caves, In the clefts of crumbling walls, With a new and verdant glory. Where the shady banks are steepest, In the pleasant woodland glades, There our mimic groves displaying. Then the treacherous marsh's bosom, Though we boast no lovely bloom, That can rival with the flowers; Though we fling no sweet perfume; Though no varied hue is ours Yet hath nature framed our race WITHOUT THE CHILDREN. Оn, the weary, solemn silence Where the children come no more! Peeping through the opening door- Strange it is to wake at midnight What is home without the children? Oh, the weary, solemn silence Heaven help me! how could I forget Some of thy modesty, That blossoms here as well, unseen, "BLESSED TO GIVE.” THE kingly sun gives forth his rays; BRIEF LITERARY NOTICES. WE propose to note each month the chief books -James Russell Lowell. of interest which appear on the other side of the water. LA SOCIÉTÉ FRANÇAISE ET LA SOCIÉTÉ ANGLAISE AU THE Histoire Anecdotique du Théâtre en France, is one of the most amusing books we have had the | being reserved) will be utterly ineffectual to save society when the hour of peril comes. La Religieuse is beyond a doubt the most remarkable novel of the past month.-Saturday Review. good fortune to meet with for a long time. M. du Casse takes up his subject quite ab ovo, for he begins with the mysteries and moralities of the medieval age. The letters-patent granted by the provost of Paris in 1402 to the confrères de la Passion are the first document he mentions, and the brothers Gréban open the long list of dramatic authors. The title Histoire Anecdotique is amply justified by the contents of the two volumes. Leaving to Parfait, to M. Hippolyte Lucas, and to M. Jules Janin, the erudite side of the question, M. du Casse abounds in amusing stories, in parodies, in legends from the green-room, and other details which render his narrative extremely entertaining. In the second chapter we are introduced to comparatively civilized tragedies and comedies, associated with the names of Garnier, Jodelle, and that inexhaustible Hardy whose debut on the stage was a tragedy in eight parts of five acts each! The price of admission at the beginning of the seventeenth century was five sous to the pit and ten sous to the boxes; so that, as M. du Casse remarks, the spectators who had the patience to sit through the forty acts of Theagène et Chariclée could scarcely complain of not having enough for their money. Two chapters alone devoted to the Comédie Italienne are scarcely sufficient, for the plays of Boissy, Favart, and Anseaume are particularly characteristic of the manners and customs of French society a hundred and fifty years ago. The voluminous collection of what is called La Theatre de la Foire might easily have supplied M. du Casse with a large number of interesting extracts; and it is well known that, amongst much that is worse than rubbish, those plays contain many specimens of true humor and genuine wit. Saturday Review. L' ESSENCE DE LA RELIGION and under the influence of modern civilization. The The THE new clerical novel, La Religieuse-ascrib-nity to set aside minor differences, and to join for ed, like Le Maudit, first to M. Renan, then to the the purpose of defending the essentials of faith Abbé Guettée, and finally to M. Louis Ulbach-is against their busy adversaries. The true Catholics in the strict sense of the word a continuation of are those, he continues, who see that the principle the previous work. The author, whilst attempting Protestants, in their turn, feel that Protestantism of authority must not be overstrained; the true to describe the wickedness and absurdity of cloister life, and to explain his views of the way in which does not signify indifference to all positive religion; reforms ought to be carried out, has introduced and the union of these genuine representatives of some of the characters with which we are already Christianity will be enough to overrule the undue familiar. The preface deserves notice because it pretensions of science, the blind hatred of some, and the carelessness of others. Such is the sumndiscloses the very natural irritation created amongst mary of the ideas contained in M. Guizot's preface. the higher clergy by the bold denunciations of a writer who is evidently familiar with the facts he The volume itself, being the first of a series, emexposes, and to whom the line of Racine may Natural Religion; 2. Christian Doctrines; 3. The braces eight meditations on-1. The Problems of strictly be applied: "Nourri dans le sérail j'en connais les détours." To the diatribes of M. Eu- Supernatural Element; 4. The Limits of Science; gene Sue and the tirades of Diderot, it might be 5. Revelations; 6. The Inspiration of the Scrip answered that they were the result of party spirit Christ as he is exhibited in the Gospels.-Saturday tures; 7. God according to the Bible; 8. Jesus and of prejudice. The author of Le Maudit and La Religieuse is distinctly beyond such an accusation; and therefore the anger of the clerical party in France has proportionably increased. If, he says, we study attentively the condition of Europe at the present time, we can not fail to see that the idea of religion is losing ground every where; and as the very existence of society is intimately connected with the vitality of religious belief, the ruin of the one must necessarily imply the downfall of the other. Such is the argument upon which the author of La Religieuse rests the whole development of his tale; and he maintains that religion as now understood by Roman Catholics (all parts of doctrine Review. LA RELIGIEUSE. Par l'Abbé ***, Auteur du Maudit. THE London Quarterly is rather severe on Reade's Savage Africa, republished here by the Harpers: "To the two well-known sensation novelists, must now be added a sensation traveler of the same name. The very title of this bulky volume shows its character. The word 'Equatorial' has only a very doubtful right to appear there at all, seeing that the journey was confined to the West Coast, or, rather, to sundry points of the coast between Cape de Verde and the river Congo. As for the 'Gorilla' country, the author did enter it, but he saw none of that species of pre-Adamite man. |